Twelve rural hospitals that are members of the Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative (including Reedsburg Area Medical Center), the Coop itself, and the Madison Patient Safety Collaborative have formed a partnership to plan for the implementation of an integrated electronic health record across southern Wisconsin. MPSC includes two multispecialty clinic systems; a staff-model HMO; and all four Madison hospitals. The rural hospitals will also serve as a bridge to dozens of rural primary care clinics as part of the planning process. The primary goal of this 12-month project is to... Assemble multiple healthcare providers within a 180-mile radius of Madison, Wisconsin, so that they can plan for the implementation of common infrastructure for an integrated electronic health record (HER) and computerized provider order entry (CPOE) that will enhance access to clinical data and lead to measurable and sustainable improvements in patient safety and quality of care. The project objectives include... 1) determine the "readiness" of the hospital partners to expand/enhance their HER capabilities so that they can be integrated with each other 2) develop a workable model/plan for standards-based data sharing that would allow multiple providers using disparate information systems to access patient information via a common platform 3) create a quality measurement and enhancement tool that would allow project partners to measure improvements in quality and patient care that are directly related to HER/CPOE implementation. Most of the initial planning activities will concentrate on the 12 RWHC hospitals, and will involve assessing their readiness for HER implementation and integration. The focus will then shift to the entire partnership--both rural and urban hospitals--as they attempt to develop common HER infrastructure that would facilitate access to patient information and shared CPOE resources. The group is also very interested in knowing if measuring improved outcomes result from this new technology. This application is the natural extension of two successful networks, a rural cooperative and an urban collaborative, partnering with each other to address a regional priority. The long-term objectives of the partnership will be achieved through the development of viable assessment, planning, and measurement tools that participants can use for individual or collaborative HER implementation activities within 12 to 18 months.